NEW DELHI: Traveling nearly 4.4 billion kilometres in a record eight years and eight months, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has crossed the orbit of Neptune on its way to Pluto. This is its last major crossing en route to becoming the first...

"It's a cosmic coincidence that connects one of NASA's iconic past outer solar system explorers, with our next outer solar system explorer,"

Related News

NEW DELHI: Traveling nearly 4.4 billion kilometers in a record eight years and eight months, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has crossed the orbit of Neptune on its way to Pluto. This is its last major crossing en route to becoming the first probe to make a close encounter with distant Pluto on July 14, 2015. The sophisticated piano-sized spacecraft, which launched in January...

(Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory ) NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has traversed the orbit of Neptune. This is its last major crossing en route to becoming the first probe to make a close encounter with distant Pluto on July 14, 2015. The sophisticated piano-sized spacecraft, which launched in January 2006, reached Neptune's orbit -- nearly 2.75 billion miles (4.4....

Artist's concept of NASA's New Horizons probe flying past the dwarf planet Pluto on July 14, 2015. New Horizons crossed the orbit of Neptune on Aug. 25, 2014, 25 years to the day after NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by the distant blue planet. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute View full size image A speedy NASA probe has...

(Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory ) August 25, 1989: Neptune is in view. It is the middle of the night and everything is happening fast at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Voyager team members have had little or no sleep. Vice President Dan Quayle is on the scene and Chuck Berry, of "Johnny B. Goode" fame, is prepping for an outdoor party. This will be...

As NASA’s New Horizons mission heads to Pluto, scientists could get an idea of what to expect by studying Triton, Neptune's strange icy moon. New Horizons marked a major anniversary on Monday when the Pluto-bound spacecraft crossed the orbit of Neptune: It was 25 years ago that the Voyager 2 spacecraft first flew by Neptune and its satellite Triton. Related story: Old Voyager 2...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA calls it a cosmic coincidence. On Monday, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft crossed the orbit of Neptune on its way to Pluto. The celestial milestone occurred on the 25th anniversary of Voyager 2's historic flyby of Neptune. It's the last major intersection for New...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. >> NASA calls it a cosmic coincidence. On Monday, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft crossed the orbit of Neptune on its way to Pluto. The celestial milestone occurred on the 25th anniversary of Voyager 2’s historic flyby of Neptune. It’s the last major intersection for New...

New Horizons Spacecraft Crosses Neptune's Orbit

published:02 Nov 2014

New Horizons Spacecraft Crosses Neptune's Orbit

New Horizons Spacecraft Crosses Neptune's Orbit

published:02 Nov 2014

views:16

Crossing Neptune’s orbit. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft traversed the orbit of Neptune on August 25. It is the spacecraft’s last major crossing en route to becoming the first probe to make a close flyby of Pluto in July 2015. The milestone happened on the 25th anniversary of the historic encounter of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft with Neptune in 1989.
More space videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/okrajoe...

New Horizons Spacecraft Crosses Neptune's Orbit

published:02 Nov 2014

views:16

Crossing Neptune’s orbit. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft traversed the orbit of Neptune on August 25. It is the spacecraft’s last major crossing en route to becoming the first probe to make a close flyby of Pluto in July 2015. The milestone happened on the 25th anniversary of the historic encounter of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft with Neptune in 1989.
More space videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/okrajoe...

NASA’s Mission to Pluto was a two part televised science event at NASA headquarters on August 25 2014 – the same date that the agency’s New Horizons spacecraft passed the orbit of Neptune on its way to Pluto and exactly 25 years after the Voyager spacecraft’s encounter with Neptune in 1989. During the first event, entitled NASA’s New Horizons Pluto Mission: Continuing Voyager’s Legacy of Exploration, NASA scientists and officials discussed the two missions.
Related Video \"The Connection Between the New Horizons and Voyager Missions\":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvPrNwFZ4KM
Related Releases:
25 Years After Neptune: Reflections on Voyager:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-288
NASA Pluto-Bound Spacecraft Crosses Neptune\'s Orbit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-287
NASA TV to Air Events About Pluto-Bound Spacecraft:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-284
Release Date: 25 August 2014
Credit: NASA...

NASA’s Mission to Pluto was a two part televised science event at NASA headquarters on August 25 2014 – the same date that the agency’s New Horizons spacecraft passed the orbit of Neptune on its way to Pluto and exactly 25 years after the Voyager spacecraft’s encounter with Neptune in 1989. During the first event, entitled NASA’s New Horizons Pluto Mission: Continuing Voyager’s Legacy of Exploration, NASA scientists and officials discussed the two missions.
Related Video \"The Connection Between the New Horizons and Voyager Missions\":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvPrNwFZ4KM
Related Releases:
25 Years After Neptune: Reflections on Voyager:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-288
NASA Pluto-Bound Spacecraft Crosses Neptune\'s Orbit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-287
NASA TV to Air Events About Pluto-Bound Spacecraft:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-284
Release Date: 25 August 2014
Credit: NASA...

NASA's New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto -- Coloured Pluto comes into view

published:14 Apr 2015

NASA's New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto -- Coloured Pluto comes into view

NASA's New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto -- Coloured Pluto comes into view

published:14 Apr 2015

views:5

NASA\'s New Horizons probe is visiting Pluto — and just sent back its first color photos,Pluto and its biggest moon Charon appear as colorful blobs in a fresh NASA image taken by the New Horizons spacecraft.NASA\'s New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto,NASA\'s New Horizons probe is visiting Pluto — and just sent back its first color photos,NASA\'s New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto,The New Horizons probe, which is bearing down on Pluto, has captured its first colour image of the distant dwarf planet.,Coloured Pluto comes into view,NASA\'s New Horizons teases with Pluto pic ahead of July flyby
SlashGear‎ - 28 mins ago
NASA\'s New Horizons spacecraft will be making a historic flyby of Pluto mid-summer this year, and it\'ll be ...
NASA\'s New Horizons Spacecraft Nears Historic July 14 Encounter with Pluto - KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo ...
KFDA NewsChannel 10 Amarillo‎ - 37 mins ago
More news for Pluto
NASA\'s New Horizons Spacecraft: Seeing Pluto as Never ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej3HUvLw_sA
54 mins ago - In NASA first of two televised briefings on Tuesday, April 14, plans and upcoming activities about the agency\'s mission to Pluto that will make the first-ever close ...
NASA\'s New Horizons Spacecraft Nears Historic July 14 ...
www.newschannel10.com/.../nasas-new-horizons-spacecraft-nears-historic-j...
37 mins ago - \"Scientific literature is filled with papers on the characteristics of Pluto and its moons from ground based and Earth orbiting space observations, but we\'ve never ...
\'We are at Pluto\'s doorstep.\': New Horizons mission edges ...
g...

NASA's New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto -- Coloured Pluto comes into view

published:14 Apr 2015

views:5

NASA\'s New Horizons probe is visiting Pluto — and just sent back its first color photos,Pluto and its biggest moon Charon appear as colorful blobs in a fresh NASA image taken by the New Horizons spacecraft.NASA\'s New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto,NASA\'s New Horizons probe is visiting Pluto — and just sent back its first color photos,NASA\'s New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto,The New Horizons probe, which is bearing down on Pluto, has captured its first colour image of the distant dwarf planet.,Coloured Pluto comes into view,NASA\'s New Horizons teases with Pluto pic ahead of July flyby
SlashGear‎ - 28 mins ago
NASA\'s New Horizons spacecraft will be making a historic flyby of Pluto mid-summer this year, and it\'ll be ...
NASA\'s New Horizons Spacecraft Nears Historic July 14 Encounter with Pluto - KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo ...
KFDA NewsChannel 10 Amarillo‎ - 37 mins ago
More news for Pluto
NASA\'s New Horizons Spacecraft: Seeing Pluto as Never ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej3HUvLw_sA
54 mins ago - In NASA first of two televised briefings on Tuesday, April 14, plans and upcoming activities about the agency\'s mission to Pluto that will make the first-ever close ...
NASA\'s New Horizons Spacecraft Nears Historic July 14 ...
www.newschannel10.com/.../nasas-new-horizons-spacecraft-nears-historic-j...
37 mins ago - \"Scientific literature is filled with papers on the characteristics of Pluto and its moons from ground based and Earth orbiting space observations, but we\'ve never ...
\'We are at Pluto\'s doorstep.\': New Horizons mission edges ...
g...

New Horizons Spacecraft Takes First Images Of Pluto's Moons

published:19 Feb 2015

New Horizons Spacecraft Takes First Images Of Pluto's Moons

New Horizons Spacecraft Takes First Images Of Pluto's Moons

published:19 Feb 2015

views:626

NASA\'s New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the clearest images yet of two of Pluto\'s moons as it approaches the dwarf planet to collect more data.
Follow Cliff Judy: http://www.twitter.com/cliffjudy
See more at http://www.newsy.com...

New Horizons Spacecraft Takes First Images Of Pluto's Moons

published:19 Feb 2015

views:626

NASA\'s New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the clearest images yet of two of Pluto\'s moons as it approaches the dwarf planet to collect more data.
Follow Cliff Judy: http://www.twitter.com/cliffjudy
See more at http://www.newsy.com...

July 8th Daily Briefing for New Horizons/Pluto Mission Pre-Flyby

published:08 Jul 2015

July 8th Daily Briefing for New Horizons/Pluto Mission Pre-Flyby

July 8th Daily Briefing for New Horizons/Pluto Mission Pre-Flyby

published:08 Jul 2015

views:301

July 8th daily pre-flyby overview of the New Horizons mission, the spacecraft and its suite of instruments and a summary of Pluto science to date from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, site of the mission operations center....

July 8th Daily Briefing for New Horizons/Pluto Mission Pre-Flyby

published:08 Jul 2015

views:301

July 8th daily pre-flyby overview of the New Horizons mission, the spacecraft and its suite of instruments and a summary of Pluto science to date from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, site of the mission operations center....

New Horizons Spacecraft Enroute To Pluto Ready To Awaken

published:01 Dec 2014

New Horizons Spacecraft Enroute To Pluto Ready To Awaken

New Horizons Spacecraft Enroute To Pluto Ready To Awaken

published:01 Dec 2014

views:2

Thumbnail picture is Jupiter and Io taken from New Horizons as it passed by.
The day of closest approach to Pluto is July 14, 2015, when the spacecraft will be only about 6,200 miles from Pluto, zipping by at about 31,300 miles per hour. Its high-resolution cameras will be able to pick out surface details 230 feet wide, which, at the same distance from Earth, would be equivalent to identifying the ponds in New York City’s Central Park, according to planetary scientist Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, who’s leading the mission.
The rendezvous with Pluto will last six months, and New Horizons will map the geology, temperature, and composition of Pluto and its moons, and analyze the Plutonian atmosphere. As New Horizons leaves the Pluto system, it will glance back at Pluto passing in front of the sun to see whether there’s a haze above the atmosphere—a feature that was also seen on Neptune’s moon Triton, which is similar to Pluto in size, atmosphere, and surface composition. New Horizons may also discover a comet-like tail of particles streaming off Pluto.
Even when New Horizons leaves the Pluto system, it’s not quite done. In October, astronomers used Hubble to identify three smaller Kuiper Belt Objects that New Horizons could visit in around 2019. But whether the spacecraft will make the extra visit depends on its post-Pluto condition and NASA funding.
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/new-horizons-pluto-mission-wake-up/...

New Horizons Spacecraft Enroute To Pluto Ready To Awaken

published:01 Dec 2014

views:2

Thumbnail picture is Jupiter and Io taken from New Horizons as it passed by.
The day of closest approach to Pluto is July 14, 2015, when the spacecraft will be only about 6,200 miles from Pluto, zipping by at about 31,300 miles per hour. Its high-resolution cameras will be able to pick out surface details 230 feet wide, which, at the same distance from Earth, would be equivalent to identifying the ponds in New York City’s Central Park, according to planetary scientist Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, who’s leading the mission.
The rendezvous with Pluto will last six months, and New Horizons will map the geology, temperature, and composition of Pluto and its moons, and analyze the Plutonian atmosphere. As New Horizons leaves the Pluto system, it will glance back at Pluto passing in front of the sun to see whether there’s a haze above the atmosphere—a feature that was also seen on Neptune’s moon Triton, which is similar to Pluto in size, atmosphere, and surface composition. New Horizons may also discover a comet-like tail of particles streaming off Pluto.
Even when New Horizons leaves the Pluto system, it’s not quite done. In October, astronomers used Hubble to identify three smaller Kuiper Belt Objects that New Horizons could visit in around 2019. But whether the spacecraft will make the extra visit depends on its post-Pluto condition and NASA funding.
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/new-horizons-pluto-mission-wake-up/...

Pluto in a Minute: How Did Pluto Get So Far Away?

published:07 Jul 2015

Pluto in a Minute: How Did Pluto Get So Far Away?

Pluto in a Minute: How Did Pluto Get So Far Away?

published:07 Jul 2015

views:4119

What’s cool about Pluto? Get a quick peek at the latest science in this daily update from NASA’s New Horizons mission, on track for a flight past Pluto on July 14, 2015.
How does a planet so small and so far from the Sun have an atmosphere? This is Pluto in a Minute.
Pluto’s orbit actually crosses Neptune’s, so for about two decades of every 248 Earth year orbit Pluto makes around the Sun, it’s inside the orbit of Neptune.
It turns out Neptune has a huge effect on Pluto’s orbit, and the two bodies are actually in resonance with one another: for every two orbits Pluto makes around the Sun, Pluto makes three. And scientists think Neptune is actually the reason Pluto is where it is.
One dynamic model of the solar system presented in the 1990s suggested that the planet actually formed closer to the Sun than they are now. It’s possible under this model that Pluto formed at around 30 AU.
In the mid-2000s, another model was presented called the Nice model suggested that Pluto could have formed as close (to the Sun) as 15 AU. With all these huge gas giants orbiting so closely together, their gravity eventually threw this system into chaos. The planets’ orbits were flung further out from the Sun and all the small bodies were also flung further out. At some point, Pluto and Neptune became locked together in this resonance.
So the question is: If Pluto formed closer to the Sun, how close was it? The data from New Horizons will doubtlessly shed some light on this question, but in the meantime if you want to know more about Pluto be sure to check out the New Horizons websites and t...

Pluto in a Minute: How Did Pluto Get So Far Away?

published:07 Jul 2015

views:4119

What’s cool about Pluto? Get a quick peek at the latest science in this daily update from NASA’s New Horizons mission, on track for a flight past Pluto on July 14, 2015.
How does a planet so small and so far from the Sun have an atmosphere? This is Pluto in a Minute.
Pluto’s orbit actually crosses Neptune’s, so for about two decades of every 248 Earth year orbit Pluto makes around the Sun, it’s inside the orbit of Neptune.
It turns out Neptune has a huge effect on Pluto’s orbit, and the two bodies are actually in resonance with one another: for every two orbits Pluto makes around the Sun, Pluto makes three. And scientists think Neptune is actually the reason Pluto is where it is.
One dynamic model of the solar system presented in the 1990s suggested that the planet actually formed closer to the Sun than they are now. It’s possible under this model that Pluto formed at around 30 AU.
In the mid-2000s, another model was presented called the Nice model suggested that Pluto could have formed as close (to the Sun) as 15 AU. With all these huge gas giants orbiting so closely together, their gravity eventually threw this system into chaos. The planets’ orbits were flung further out from the Sun and all the small bodies were also flung further out. At some point, Pluto and Neptune became locked together in this resonance.
So the question is: If Pluto formed closer to the Sun, how close was it? The data from New Horizons will doubtlessly shed some light on this question, but in the meantime if you want to know more about Pluto be sure to check out the New Horizons websites and t...

more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/astro/planet_news.html
\"Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel beyond Mars to the outer planets of our solar system. During the 21-month, 620-million-mile journey to Jupiter, Pioneer penetrated the previously unexplored asteroid belt without mishap, eliminating the long held fear that high-speed particles or huge asteroids might destroy the spacecraft. This film tells of the findings recorded by the scientific instruments and cameras onboard. After leaving the Jovian system, Pioneer will be on a course that will take the spacecraft out of our solar system where it will wander endlessly through the Milky Way Galaxy, carrying a message for possible extraterrestrial beings.\"
The last intelligible telemetry from Pioneer 10 was received on April 27, 2002; the signal from the spacecraft was lost completely on January 23, 2003.
Reupload of a previously uploaded film, in one piece instead of multiple parts, and with improved sound and video.
Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
from \"PIONEER 10 SPACECRAFT DEPARTS SOLAR SYSTEM\" 1983
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19830017473.pdf
The first departure of a spacecraft from the solar system will occur on Monday, June 13 [1983] at approximately 5:0...

more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/astro/planet_news.html
\"Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel beyond Mars to the outer planets of our solar system. During the 21-month, 620-million-mile journey to Jupiter, Pioneer penetrated the previously unexplored asteroid belt without mishap, eliminating the long held fear that high-speed particles or huge asteroids might destroy the spacecraft. This film tells of the findings recorded by the scientific instruments and cameras onboard. After leaving the Jovian system, Pioneer will be on a course that will take the spacecraft out of our solar system where it will wander endlessly through the Milky Way Galaxy, carrying a message for possible extraterrestrial beings.\"
The last intelligible telemetry from Pioneer 10 was received on April 27, 2002; the signal from the spacecraft was lost completely on January 23, 2003.
Reupload of a previously uploaded film, in one piece instead of multiple parts, and with improved sound and video.
Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
from \"PIONEER 10 SPACECRAFT DEPARTS SOLAR SYSTEM\" 1983
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19830017473.pdf
The first departure of a spacecraft from the solar system will occur on Monday, June 13 [1983] at approximately 5:0...

Video Details

Crossing Neptune’s orbit. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft traversed the orbit of Neptune on August 25. It is the spacecraft’s last major crossing en route to becoming the first probe to make a close flyby of Pluto in July 2015. The milestone happened on the 25th anniversary of the historic encounter

NASA’s Mission to Pluto was a two part televised science event at NASA headquarters on August 25 2014 – the same date that the agency’s New Horizons spacecraft passed the orbit of Neptune on its way to Pluto and exactly 25 years after the Voyager spacecraft’s encounter with Neptune in 1989. During t

NASA\'s New Horizons probe is visiting Pluto — and just sent back its first color photos,Pluto and its biggest moon Charon appear as colorful blobs in a fresh NASA image taken by the New Horizons spacecraft.NASA\'s New Horizons snaps its first color image of Pluto,NASA\'s New Horizons probe is visiting

NASA\'s New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the clearest images yet of two of Pluto\'s moons as it approaches the dwarf planet to collect more data.
Follow Cliff Judy: http://www.twitter.com/cliffjudy
See more at http://www.newsy.com

July 8th daily pre-flyby overview of the New Horizons mission, the spacecraft and its suite of instruments and a summary of Pluto science to date from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, site of the mission operations center.

Thumbnail picture is Jupiter and Io taken from New Horizons as it passed by.
The day of closest approach to Pluto is July 14, 2015, when the spacecraft will be only about 6,200 miles from Pluto, zipping by at about 31,300 miles per hour. Its high-resolution cameras will be able to pick out surface

What’s cool about Pluto? Get a quick peek at the latest science in this daily update from NASA’s New Horizons mission, on track for a flight past Pluto on July 14, 2015.
How does a planet so small and so far from the Sun have an atmosphere? This is Pluto in a Minute.
Pluto’s orbit actually crosse

more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/astro/planet_news.html
\"Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel beyond Mars to the outer planets of our solar system. During the 21-month, 620-million-mile journey to Jupiter, Pioneer penetrated the previously unexplored asteroid belt without mishap, elim

NASA will host a media teleconference at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday, April 29th, to discuss recent images returned from the New Horizons spacecraft as it nears its historic July 14th encounter with Pluto. Officials also will provide an update on the timeline and significance of ima

Adobe Flash CS6 animation on how Triton might have been captured by Neptune. I read a theory that Triton is so massive it must have actually hit Neptune, bounced off the atmosphere, and gone into orbit because it lost all of its momentum.
nasa new horizons pluto charon kuiper belt object motion twe

Bonus destination for New Horizons? A search team for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft also used Hubble’s distant vision to uncover three Kuiper Belt objects at the far fringe of our solar system that New Horizons could potentially visit after it flies by Pluto in July 2015. The Kuiper Belt is a vast

The Pluto-Charon Dance: This close up look at Pluto and Charon, taken as part of the mission’s latest optical navigation (“OpNav”) campaign from Jan. 25-31, 2015, comes from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on NASA;s New Horizons spacecraft.
Each frame had an exposure time of one-tenth

Images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft suggest that Pluto has a polar cap made of some kind of ice.
The dwarf planet’s surface is mottled with light and dark patches, each measuring hundreds of kilometres across.
But its pole remains bright no matter how Pluto rotates, suggesting that a highly r

An animation of the New Horizons space probe at Pluto. At the start of the clip we see the spacecraft heading towards us with Charon, Pluto\'s largest satellite, in the background. The craft then zooms past and heads in the direction of Pluto.
New Horizons launched from Earth on 19 January 2006 and

Scientists say planets located beyond Neptune could be altering the orbits of objects in the farthest reaches of our solar system.
Follow Christian Bryant: http://www.twitter.com/bryantcp
See more at http://www.newsy.com
Sources:
National Geographic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxno39vLfZE
N

Nasa\'s Dawn probe achieves orbit around Ceres.
The US space agency\'s Dawn probe has gone into orbit around Ceres, the largest object in the Solar System between Mars and Jupiter.
A signal from the satellite confirming its status was received by ground stations at 13:36 GMT.
Ceres is the first of t

New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006, directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory with an Earth-relative velocity of about 16.26 km/s (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph) after its last engine was shut down. Thus, the spacecraft left Earth at the greatest-ever launch speed for a man-made object. It flew by the orbit of Mars on April 7, 2006, the orbit of Jupiter on February 28, 2007, the orbit of Saturn on June 8, 2008; and the orbit of Uranus on March 18, 2011. Since February 2012, its distance to Pluto is less than 10 AU (more than 20 AU from Earth).

As of February 12, 2012[update], the spacecraft was traveling at 15.41 km/s, or about 3.249 AU per year, at a distance of 21.99 astronomical units (3.290×109 km) from the Sun and 22.97 astronomical units (3.436×109 km) from Earth, just beyond the orbit of Uranus. The spacecraft was at a declination of −21.44 degrees, and a right ascension of 18.483 hours at that time. At that distance, light takes about 3.03 hours to reach the spacecraft from Earth, meaning that a round trip time for a radio signal was about 6.06 hours.